Stubborn Mick Sticks With Old Guard

I guess you have to respect his defiance if not always his judgement because Mick the Man does it his way.

He knows what us fans think about him playing Luke Chambers as a right back and Tommy Smith on the wrong side of defence.

He is also aware that as faithful supporters we are entitled to our point of view but this won’t turn his head because the gaffer does it his way as that is what he is paid to do.

He is not daft and realizes that the longer our win-less run continues the more disgruntled Town supporters will become but he will not bend to people power and will die by the sword.

He has said that he is not a lover of making changes, which I guess is fair enough. He wants his players to feel settled and this won’t occur by chopping and changing all the time.

His achilles heel however is both his strength and his weakness. Once he has his mind set on something it is difficult, if not bordering on down right impossible to make him think otherwise.

Now of course when things are going swimmingly supporters stop complaining. It is only when things start to go a bit pear-shaped that the clouds of discontent reconfigure over Portman Road.

Mick is not for turning and would prefer to ride out a storm and say ‘I told you so ‘ than be persuaded to change course midway.

I think he gets the fact that supporters are entitled to complain. I think he intrinsically understands fans frustrations but they don’t get paid to do his job and he is very single-minded.

As a human being I like him a lot. His honesty is admirable and he would prefer to carry the weight of responsibility of failure then aim it towards his players. They are all admirable qualities and his tough talking Yorkshire wit just adds to his personality.

In the modern game there are few managers around like Mick the Man. You could even say he is a football dinosaur because he is very much old school when it comes to football methodology and sheer wanton stubbornness.

That said, without him where would we be now? Quite probably in the third tier of English football – or worse and he has pulled us up by our bootlaces to fight another day.

This season we have exceeded expectations but we are still left ruing missed opportunities. That is human nature I suppose.

A win tonight would go some way to repairing the recent damage and I just hope that this evening it won’t be just about a good performance but also about a good result!

We still have a chance of making the play-off’s and the chance of a grand finale. Let us hope then that our mission starts tonight!


Frank Weston – Editor of Vital Ipswich